Lesson 12 of 16 · Money
Trading
The Trading tab is a full trading desk that runs on paper money: pretend dollars at real prices. It's a safe place to learn and test ideas. Winston never places real orders and isn't connected to any brokerage. The desk has its own dark navy look and its own menu: Dashboard, Assets, My portfolio and Bots; then Trading, Control Panel, Signal Bot, DCA Bot, GRID Bot, Terminal and Marketplace; then Orders, Settings and Subscription.
What this tab is for
- Add stocks, funds and coins to your watchlist and ticker
- Open a paper account and deposit pretend money
- Buy and sell at live prices from the Terminal
- See your paper account, holdings and results by stock, coin or bot
- Review every order, with buys, sells, realised profit and fees
- See today's buy and sell calls and the vote behind each
- Test the strategy over two years with return, worst drop, Sharpe, Sortino and win rate
- Set your risk level, holding period, budget and markets
- Apply a ready-made strategy from the Marketplace
- Let the Signal Bot trade your paper account daily, pause it, or run it now
- Set up a DCA bot: asset, amount per buy and how often
- Compare DCA with buying all at once
- Set up a Grid bot: asset, bottom and top price, grid lines and money
- Test a grid over a past period against buy and hold
- Add holdings with quantity, price paid and date
- See money invested, value now, return and today's change
- See your best and worst holdings and where your money is
- Get scored ideas: buy, keep holding or consider selling
- Test the advisor's rules on two years of prices against buy and hold
Option 1 of 13
Setting up the desk
- 1
Open Trading
In the Money group.
- 2
Add what you want to watch
Press Add a stock or coin. Type the symbol, such as AAPL or BTC, and choose Stock / fund or crypto. It joins your watchlist, the ticker and Winston's algorithm.
- 3
Open a paper account
Press Deposit paper money and choose a starting amount. This is pretend money.
- 4
Reset when you like
Reset paper account clears its holdings and trade history so you can start again.
Option 2 of 13
Reading the Dashboard
- 1
Portfolio value
What your paper account is worth, compared with last month.
- 2
Switch the view
Use By Stock, By Coin and By Bot to see results each way.
- 3
Check Winston's call
Each asset shows Winston's call and its algorithm score.
- 4
Paper trade now
Jump straight to placing a trade.
- 5
Customise
Use Customize tab and the Tab library to choose what the dashboard shows.
Option 3 of 13
Placing a trade in the Terminal
- 1
Open Terminal
From the desk menu.
- 2
Pick the asset
Choose it on the order ticket. The live price shows.
- 3
Buy or sell
Enter the amount in dollars and press Buy or Sell. Every trade includes the same fee as the bots: 0.1% for stocks, 0.3% for crypto.
- 4
Watch your positions
Open positions lists what you hold. Press Sell all to close one.
Option 4 of 13
Assets and orders
- 1
Assets
Everything you watch or own, with live prices and Winston's call. Filter All, Stocks or Crypto.
- 2
Orders
Every buy and sell, with totals for buys, sells, realised profit and fees.
Option 5 of 13
Your settings
- 1
Open Settings
These shape every score, position size and stop-loss on the desk.
- 2
Risk level
Careful, Balanced or Bold.
- 3
Holding period
Weeks, Months or Years.
- 4
Budget and markets
How much to invest, and whether you trade stocks, crypto or both.
Option 6 of 13
Reading the Signal Bot
- 1
Open Signal Bot
Today's calls lists each asset with Buy or Sell, and a note when the size is halved.
- 2
How it decides
Shows each strategy's vote and weight.
- 3
Two-year test
Pick a starting amount to see how the rules would have done: return per year, worst drop, Sharpe and Sortino (return for the risk taken), a bad day (1 in 20), and win rate.
Option 7 of 13
Running it from the Control Panel
- 1
Open Control Panel
Run, pause and fund Winston's paper trading. If you have no paper account yet, press Deposit.
- 2
Turn on daily trading
Switch on Trade every day after the US market closes. The Signal Bot then trades your paper account daily.
- 3
Run it now
Press Run now to trade on today's calls straight away.
- 4
Pause
Switch it off to pause the Signal Bot.
Option 8 of 13
The Marketplace
- 1
Browse strategies
Ready-made strategies for Winston's algorithm.
- 2
Apply one
Applying a strategy changes your risk level and holding period.
- 3
See it illustrated
The Strategy illustrator draws how the strategy behaves.
Option 9 of 13
Setting up a DCA bot
- 1
Open DCA Bot
From the desk menu.
- 2
Choose the asset
Any stock or coin on your watchlist.
- 3
Set the amount and frequency
Amount per buy in dollars, and how often: every day, week, two weeks or month.
- 4
Choose the test period
3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years.
- 5
Read the result
How much you put in, what it's worth now, your return, average price paid and how much you'd own. Compare with All at once instead.
Option 10 of 13
Setting up a Grid bot
- 1
Open GRID Bot
From the desk menu.
- 2
Set the range
Bottom price and top price: where you expect the price to move between.
- 3
Set the grid
Grid lines (how many bands) and the money to use. The amount per band is shown.
- 4
Test it
Choose a test period. See what it's worth at the end, the grid profit, days the price stayed in range, and how buy and hold did.
A grid works best when the price moves sideways. Days in range shows how often the price stayed between your bottom and top; outside that, the grid has nothing to trade.
Option 11 of 13
Seeing all your bots
- 1
Open Bots
Winston's trading bots in one place. All trade pretend money only.
Option 12 of 13
Tracking what you own
- 1
Open My portfolio
What you own (entered by hand), what it's worth now and your return.
- 2
Add something you bought
In the live tracker, enter the stock or fund, how many, the price paid each and the date. Winston only tracks it.
- 3
Read the dashboard
Money invested, Worth now, Return (ROI) and Today, plus Best and worst and Where your money is.
Option 13 of 13
Getting the advisor's suggestions
- 1
Open Trading
Winston's advisor: set your preferences, pick what to watch, get scored suggestions and test them.
- 2
Tell Winston how you invest
How much risk you're comfortable with, how long you plan to hold, and your budget.
- 3
Choose what to watch
Add tickers (like AAPL) or coins (like BTC), or press Add a starter list. Positions in your tracker are included too.
- 4
Press Get Winston's suggestions
Each idea is scored 0 to 100, with a suggested amount, a stop-loss (sell if it falls to this), a first profit target and how the score was worked out. Your holdings are marked Keep holding or Consider selling.
- 5
Test the rules
See how these exact rules would have done over about two years, compared with simply buying and holding, including the worst drop.
Not financial advice. Any investment can lose money.
Not financial advice. Past results don't promise future ones.
Your exercise
Before you finish, open the tab and try:
- Add AAPL and BTC.
- Deposit $10,000 of paper money and buy $500 of one of them in the Terminal.
- Set your risk level to Balanced and run the two-year test with $10,000.
- Turn on daily trading and check back tomorrow.
- Test a $50-a-week DCA into BTC over two years and compare it with buying all at once.
- Add one real holding to the live tracker.
- Get Winston's suggestions for a starter list.
Worked through every option above? Finish the lesson to tick it off.
Want more detail? Read Trading: the desk and paper account, Trading: the algorithm and Signal Bot, Trading: DCA and Grid bots and Trading: your real portfolio and the advisor in the manual.